1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a dental tool or implement a for the abrasion of a tooth and/or tooth filling material.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the case of damage to teeth, which can be caused by caries, accidents or the use of force, the resulting cavities are filled with filling material. The filling material then has to undergo further abrasion and finally the surface of the filling material is made as smooth as possible, because a rough surface would form retention points for bacteria.
The rotary tools conventionally used for the smoothing of the dental material only extend to a limited extent into the gap between two teeth. So that a smooth surface can also be created in the interdental space, use is normally made of metal strips. In a first treatment step use is made of a strip with a sawtooth system, in order to create a gap between the tooth with the filling and the neighboring tooth. In a second treatment step use is made of a strip with a diamond coating. By reciprocating the diamond strip backwards and forwards in the gap the tooth and/or filling material surface is smoothed. Use can be made of several metal strips with different diamond coating grain size in order to achieve the desired, smooth surface structure.
However, the changing of the dental strip used for a specific treatment step leads to a danger of the strips hooking or jamming on insertion and removal and in certain circumstances this can cause injury to the person being treated.
The problem of the invention is to provide a dental tool, with which a faster and safer treatment of the interdental space between two teeth can be obtained than with know dental tools.
In the case of the dental tool according to the present invention, the sawtooth system producing a gap as well as the diamond coating provided for smoothing the surface are combined into a single tool, which simplifies the injury-free production of smooth surfaces in the interdental space.
A preferred dental tool according to the present invention can have a first and a second diamond coating portion on the lateral face or faces of the strip, which are separated by a tooth system portion. The tooth system preferably only extends over the length of the tooth system portion, i.e. over the length of the intermediate area of the strip separating both diamond coating portions. However, the tooth system can also extend over the entire strip length and preferably in the first mentioned variant it is diamond coating-free.
The edges of the strip are preferably not diamond-coated. This makes it possible to manufacture the strip from an already diamond-coated metal band by cutting, e.g. using a laser.
The diamond coating can have in different diamond coating portions different diamond coating grain sizes in the grain diameter range 8 to 150 xcexcm.
The working procedure is e.g. as follows when using a dental tool according to the invention which, apart from a diamond coating on the lateral faces, has a tooth system along one edge. The strip is introduced beforehand into the dental gar, between two teeth using the toothed edge and filling or dental material is removed from the gap by a sawing movement. The strip is then removed from the dental gap and reintroduced turned by 180xc2x0, so that the tooth system points away from the base of the dental gap. Using the diamond-coated lateral face portions of the strip, now the gap lateral faces are ground and therefore smoothed by drawing the strip backwards and forwards through the interdental space and whilst exerting a gentle lateral pressure.